Review of She, The Ultimate Weapon
Have you ever thought to yourself, “The person closest to me could be a deadly weapon” and accepted it? You never know what someone might be going through during the life they face, but what happens when that person becomes less of a human and turns out to cause destruction to their own kind? Saikano is an anime that goes through such a scenario of loosing someone you love dearly to the arms of war. The story begins with Shuji, who is walking up to an observatory site and having a sense of nostalgia about his girlfriend, Chise. There, he finds her exchange diaries that appearedto be left behind on purpose. From what Shuji reads from the diaries, he narrates the flashbacks and scenes of Saikano as he reads.
Shuji and Chise start off as a really awkward couple, just starting out together when Chise confessed her feelings. Upon being happy with each other as the time goes, things start to alarm the two as the featured hotly-contested war edges on to their home town. The war first begins around Sapporo on Hokkaido, a northern island in Japan, which leads to a bombing on Sapporo. During this bombing, a gleam of light shoots up into the sky that absolutely annihilates the enemy fleet. From his intuition, Shuji chases this ray of light as it fades away, revealing Chise come down from it. Shuji is in shock to see that his once normal girlfriend had been turned into a harmful weapon under the army.
As it goes along, the story follows Chise and Shuji trying to keep their relationship together as many obstacles, unique to this anime, stand in their way and keep them separated. Chise will go through tough times as she loses her humanity bit by bit and as she loathes to accept herself killing many people and fighting off forces, whether she’s doing it for a good cause or not. Shuji, unable to help what’s happening to his girlfriend, will have to stand amongst the people going through the war and make choices to aid those who can’t fend for themselves.
Since this anime is in the times of gruesome war and loss, it has a very depressing mood that gives you a sense of harm and weakness. Saikano represents the feelings of defeat, helplessness, and fear with such impact that’s easy to understand and makes you as emotional as the anime shows.
The adaption of art from the manga to the anime looks almost exactly the same, which is a crafty edge on the style of both editions so you aren’t missing out on much between the two. From the rendered characters and the scenery that is placed in this anime, the art interacts with the mood of the series itself, showing off the rumbled battle site of the war with a realistic feel. Though, the art can be a little out of shape like the odd proportions when looking at a character’s profile, the wide scenery makes up for it.
Darker colors add to the dreadful tone in Saikano; using many navy, black, gray, maroon, and sharp colors for the damaged war zones and lighter colors for Hokkaido, which eventually turns more ominous.
Since Saikano is an anime constantly at war psychically and also mentally within Chise and Shuji’s mind, music adds another factor that sets the right nature in this anime.
The theme to Saikano, “Saishuu Heiki Konojo”, is a pain riding song, which makes you feel dread as you listen to it. The opening would always set me into the empty feeling that was to come through each episode. Though, I enjoyed listening to it and never once did I think to skip it, like I do for many other anime.
“Saishuu Heiki Konojo” is not the only good song that appears in Saikano. The inserted music like “Koi Suru Kimochi” and “Sayonara” makes you remember to never forget those who mean a lot to you, whether they’re the same as you remember them or not, which I felt was a great theme in Saikano.
The very clean and centric tunes in this anime really helped bring out the emotions in me and also the premise within the story.
Each character has there own evolution and development, just like how each song built up instrumentally through Saikano.
Chise, the main female protagonist throughout the story, is a very shy and clumsy girl, who has barely any self-esteem within herself. She was constantly hospitalized in Tokyo when she was younger, causing her to have very few friends. Her best friend Akemi helps her get with Shuji and make their relationship work because of Chise’s inexperience with dating or knowledge about romance. Against her will, she was turned into an ultimate weapon, which is the center of Saikano’s story as Chise slowly, but surely loses her humanity. Frequently trying to adapt to her new body by convincing herself that she’s protecting the one she loves, but admits to herself that all she is good for is destruction. Because of all the pain and killing she had caused in war, she keeps her distance from Shuji, believing that she doesn’t deserve any happiness. As time goes on, her mechanical body takes over her senses of warmth and feelings, to the point where she becomes very cold and heartless as a darker persona emerges from her. In the end, the only connection she has as a human is her love for Shuji that she’s able to string together. Although she becomes a god-like character, an immortal device, Chise is a girl always battling for her old self, regretting ever turning into what she became.
Shuji, the main male character of the story, is a somewhat anti-social seventeen year old and a guy very unsure about his feelings for Chise at the beginning of the anime, but later progresses to a deeper love. Because of his relationship with Chise, he is the only civilian who knows about her power of being an ultimate weapon. His support for Chise is what keeps her motivated through out the series, despite some harsh turns as things go on.
Although the lead roles work well together, there is also an interesting supporting cast.
Akemi and Atsushi are the best friends of Chise and Shuji, who urges the two on and also has to work through their own obstacles during the story.
Saikano is not an anime to be very light, ending with a joyful rainbow and acknowledging that everything will be okay it’s honestly the direct opposite. I enjoyed this anime very much, due to the inspirational theme that was simple to understand and also the unique aspects of war and pain. At the start of the anime, I barely smiled as I watched it because of the emotional impact it gave me, also because of the agony the characters have to fight through.
Overall, it’s something that you should watch on a sunny day so you can appreciate the joyful life you live, and be grateful that it’s not like Chise’s in Saikano.